Jan. 26.
Ovr readers will scarcely have forgotten the case of Mr. G. L. Shaw, the British merchant of Antung, who was arrested by Japanese gendarmes on July 11 last at Shingishu, the Korean frontier station, nominally because he had no passport although he had but a few hours before been admitted without one; and after being kept in gaol for nearly four months, untried, and in circumstances of great hardship, was released on bail of Yen 1,500. It will be recalled that Mr, Shaw announced openly from the first that he did not mean to submit to. such treatment and that he would move heaven and earth to obtain vindication, an apology and reparation. He did not return to his home in Antung until Nover-ber 19, though released on November 3, having prudently waited in Seoul unti' he could extract from the Japanese authorities a statement to the effect that they had no objection to his leaving the country. then, to judge by the following telegram received by us yesterday, Mr. Shaw appears to have been in Tokio pressing his case, unhappily without effect. The by radio from the M.M.S. Paul Locat Am arriving on Wednesday en verite for London, after a stay in Japan of some months and several conferences with the Ambassador, all quite resultless. Am informed that the negotiations in London between the Foreign Office and the Japanese Embassy have been concerned with the return of the bail money only, but the Japanese still refuse to comply, formally although over six months have passed since my arrest. I have formally demanded, in writing, vindication, an apology and compensation, and have handed this demand to the Ambassador in person. The question is one of vital international importance to the entire British nation, the first case of its kind in history.
The unreserved sympathy. which, it is no exaggeration to say, the whole British community of the Far East feels for Mr. Shaw, cannot but be tinged with indignation at the apparent supineness of those whose duty, it is to protect British citizens and uphold British prestige. No one is blind to the difficulties of the case. The Japanese authorities in Korea made a mistake int arresting Mr. Shaw and they do not relish eating humble pie. But that mistake was very glaring, very public, and one of a kind for which the honour of any nation, in any part of the world, would demand redress.
We do not think that, if the case had been reversed, supposing such a thing possible, Japan would have allowed six months to elapse without reparation. That the Foreign Office is trying: for no more than to get back the bail money—as Mr. Shaw has been officially informed is almost an adding of insult to injury. To Mr. Shaw the money is.nothing, the vindication everything. But it is difficult to avoid feeling that the greater' responsibility rests with the Embassy in Tokio, whose representations, addressed directly to the centre of all power in Japan, should be of far more effect and directness than' Foreign Office communicatione in London, which are most likely to be watered down on their way from the Japanese Embassy to Tokio, There are held in some quarters, we regret to say, suspicions that His Majesty's Ambassador int Tokio was, at the beginning, less alert to recognize the true bearings of Mr. Shaw's arres® than the facts of the case and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.